Name/Title
Gilman D. King House | 305 Main Street, Calais, Maine | Hinckley Hill Historic DistrictDescription
Built:c. 1850
Address:
305 Main Street
Calais, Maine
National Register
HISTORIC DISTRICT
Hinckley Hill Historic District
National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet
HINCKLEY HILL HISTORIC DISTRICT, WASHINGTON, MAINE
Section number 7 Page 3
1. Gilman D. King House, c. 1850 - C 305 Main street
The King house is a two-story, two-bay frame dwelling whose g~ble roof is oriented parallel to Main street. It is sheathed in aluminum siding and has a granite block foundation. Like several houses of this period in Calais, the entry is located on one gable end, thereby leaving the street elevation with windows ohly. In this case they consist of a pair of long nine-over-six sash on the first story and slightly smaller ones above. Wide corner pilasters rise to the entablature, and a center chimney punctuates the roof ridge. The two-bay south gable end features a pedimented entrance porch at the southwest corner with a flankingnine-over-six window. There are two windows on the second story as well as a pair in the gable peak. This fenestration pattern is repeated on the north side where a short two-story ell projects to the rear. A longe~ one-story kitchen ell extends from this block.
This house was the home of Gilman D. King, a prominent businessman during much of the nineteenth century. He was the father of both Minerva King Horton Swan, who is connected to No. 233 Main Street as well as having married one of the city's early physicians, Dr. Swan, and Willard B. King, who lived on Main Street and was also a prominent Calais businessman. The house originally had a pillared one-story veranda across the front and running down the front entrance side of th~house. It also had a portion of the ell, sheds, and barn removed. The interior was altered on the ground floor to create two small rooms, a front living room and a dining room, from the Franklin Street front parlor and the kitchen was moved into the original dining room. Charles W. King was the occupant of the house in 1901, but sometime later it became vacant and remained so for approximately 30 years, causing considerable deterioration which made it necessary for those before mentioned portions to be removed, before it was purchased in the 1940s by Mr. and Mrs. Louis LaCroix, who owned the property until Mrs. LaCroix's death in the late 1970s. Mrs. LaCroix was the great-granddaughter of Gilman D. King.